London’s blue-chip shares started the session modestly higher as traders remained optimistic about prospects for a deal between Greece and its creditors.
The FTSE 100 Index stood 11.29 points ahead at 6846.16 at about 11.30 ahead of a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers to discuss the latest set of proposals put forward by Greece.
A deal between Greece and the Eurozone countries to ease Athens' debt burden is now widely expected to be announced on Thursday.
Senior market analyst at City firm OANDA, Craig Erlam, said: "It’s been a while since people have actually been hopeful on a Greek deal and it’s providing a good boost to the markets."
However, reports suggested Greek premier Alexis Tsipras may face a rebellion from some of his party's lawmakers over concessions he is likely to make to Brussels.
US shares were also mixed. All three of the main indices made gains though the possibility of two US interest rate rises capped some of the gains late in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24 to 18,144, with more modest rises for Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
Comments from Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell that the stock market isn’t in a bubble an could accommodate two rate hikes this year unsettled the mood.
Netflix was one the best performers again on a planned seven-for-one stock split.
Asian markets were mixed with Tokyo hitting a new 18-year high overnight and modest losses in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Back in London, Sainsbury's gained 7.2p to 276.4p as broker Societe Generale upped its rating on the supermarket group. Investors in rival grocers took heart, boosting Tesco (LON:TSCO) by 2.2p to 218.4p and Morrisons (LON:MRW) by 5.4p to 185.2p.
Stagecoach (LON:SGC) shares advanced 0.8p to 409.9p after the transport group said more competition and falling oil prices had hit its UK and North American buses and coaches.
Commodity trader and producer Glencore (LON:GLEN) was 2p up at 276.9p as it announced the sale of its entire remaining interest in the Tampakan project in the Philippines.
But Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) leaked 4.9p to 367.7p after broker Cantor Fitzgerald kept its 'sell' advice on the stock and cut its target price to 328p from 342p.
Shares in Supergroup (LON:SGP) lost early gains to fall 3p to 1224p on news that the fashion retailer had appointed Nick Wharton as its permanent finance chief. Wharton had held the position temporarily since February.
Mosman Oil & Gas (LON:MSMN) dropped 0.5p or 16% to 2.62p as the New Zealand and Australia-focused oil explorer raised £400,000 through a share placing and subscription.
Alaskan oil explorer 88 Energy (LON:88E) spurted 0.15p to 0.88p after saying it had agreed a $50mln funding deal with Bank of America.
News that Ascent Resources (LON:AST) had won an environmental permit to install a gas gathering and separation station at its Petišovci field in Slovenia inflated its shares by 0.06p to 0.21p.
Shares in Russia-focused Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) ticked up 0.12p to 1.08p as Moscow provisionally approved its application for a licence at its West Kytlim platinum project.